Busted! Northern Illinois meets FSU in Orange Bowl

By TIM REYNOLDS -
Associated Press -
Sunday, December 2, 2012

MIAMI (AP) - What a weekend for Northern Illinois: Win a conference championship, lose a coach and bust the BCS.

The Huskies are headed to the Orange Bowl, set to make their Bowl Championship Series debut against Florida State. Northern Illinois won the Mid-American Conference title on Friday, lost coach Dave Doeren to North Carolina State on Saturday, and then spent Sunday anxiously waiting to see if it cracked the top 16 in the final BCS standings.

By 0.0404 points, the Huskies did just that and will play in Miami on Jan. 1 as their reward.

“We are sure excited,” said Rod Carey, the former Northern Illinois offensive assistant who was promoted to head coach Sunday evening, just before learning the team made the Orange Bowl. “It’s been a crazy weekend up here at Northern Illinois.”

The MAC champions (12-1) were 15th in the final BCS standings. Finishing in the top 16 and ahead of the champion of a qualifying conference _ they actually finished ahead of two, Big East winner Louisville and Big Ten titlist Wisconsin _ meant the Huskies were automatically BCS-bound, earning them this date with the Atlantic Coast Conference champion Seminoles (11-2).

Northern Illinois is the first MAC school to reach the BCS. The Huskies were 21st in last week’s BCS standings, meaning they not only needed to beat Kent State _ which entered championship week as another BCS hopeful _ in the MAC title game to have a shot, they also needed some help to reach the top 16. And enough help came, particularly with Nebraska losing badly in the Big Ten title game, along with UCLA and Texas both falling over the weekend.

So it’s the Huskies and Seminoles, a matchup that surely very few people would have expected when the season began.

And while Northern Illinois will be a fun story line throughout bowl season, the Huskies earned their way into the conversation. Since last Oct. 2, Northern Illinois is 21-1, the best record in the country. For comparison’s sake, that’s two more wins than Alabama and four more than Notre Dame _ the Crimson Tide and Fighting Irish are this year’s title-game qualifiers _ over that stretch.

It will likely be cast as an offense vs. defense matchup. Florida State is second nationally in total defense and seventh in scoring defense, while Northern Illinois is ninth in scoring offense and 15th in total offense.

Of course, the Huskies piled up much of their numbers against teams that aren’t exactly prime-time, Saturday-night caliber. Northern Illinois beat Army by a point, had to rally late to beat one-win Kansas by a mere touchdown, plus struggled a bit with Toledo before winning by seven.

The Huskies do have what they consider to be some solid resume points _ a 12-game winning streak, tying Ohio State and Notre Dame for the longest current run in the nation, and a quarterback who is widely considered to be a star even without being a household name. Jordan Lynch ranks third nationally in total offense at 364.1 yards per game, behind only Baylor’s Nick Florence (387.7) and Texas A&M’s Heisman-hopeful Johnny Manziel (383.3).

“We’re 12-1,” Lynch told ESPN. “We faced tons of adversity this year. We won tons of games. … We definitely deserve to be in there.”

In fact, all that separated Northern Illinois from being perfect this season was one measly point.